Release date: February 25th for North America and February 28 worldwide.

Setting

The game will be set 1000 years after the 1st Lords of Shadow game, after Gabriel Belmont becomes the new Lord Dracula.

Zobek, the lord of the necromancers, comes to seek Dracula to warn him about Satan's inmminent return, and Dracula must begin searching for his long lost powers if he is to stand a chance against him.

The world will be mostly set in a present day European city that strikes a balance between classic Gothic architecture and more contemporany city vibe, and of course: Dracula's castle will also be a major part of the game's enviroment.

Some of the game's enviroments.

Gameplay

Lords of Shadow 2 will be signifficantly longer than the 1st game (which means something, since the 1st game took about 20 hours to complete) and will now feature a seamlessly open world where players will be able to choose where they want to go next (Although some areas requires certain power ups to access). A lot of the areas will have certain sections locked to encourage revisiting of previous areas with new power ups to collect any items missed.

Combat has been rebalanced from the previous game, and it will now play at a faster pace, Dracula is much more agile than Gabriel from the 1st game and so the combat system requires a heavier use of your reflexes to overcome your foes.

The light and dark magic systems have been replaced with different weapons that will largely serve the same function as magic from the previous game. Dracula's main arsenal will consist of the Blood whip, which is very similar to the combat cross from the previous game, it is a mid-long ranged weapon that is able to deal direct damage to a single foe, or area damage to several of them.

The void sword, which replaces the light magic from the previous game, is a short-mid ranged weapon that allows for a slight increase in damage while also enabling lifesteal to heal yourself during combat, however, each strike with the void sword will reduce your Void magic meter, once it hits zero, you will not be able to use the void sword anymore unless you recharge the meter.

The Shadow Claws,which are a fiery pair of claw-like gauntlets, will replace the shadow magic from the previous game, they are able to sunder enemy armor and deal inflicted damage, however their range is very short and so you need to get close and personal to your opponent to use it, putting you at risk of being hurt. As with the void sword, each strike with the shadow claws will reduce your shadow magic meter.

Unlike the previous game, every weapon is different and so they all have unique and different combos. The game allows for combination between direct and area attacks and for mid-combo weapon swap to enable longer, more powerful combinations.

Every weapon in the game gets power ups as you progress, which enables new skills with them, for example: The void sword can be upgraded with the ability to freeze water or foes, so that Dracula can focus on a single enemy while disabling others.

Adittionally, new moves and combos may be unlocked with experience points to increase Dracula's power.

Oh and, no more fixed camera :) The camera is now free and can be rotated 360 degrees.

Gameplay video

The soundtrack will be composed once again by the award winning Oscar Araujo, who did a marvelous job with the previous games of the saga. You can preview some of the music here.

Thank you for reading throughout the thread! I highly recommend this game if you're a fan of the saga or the genre, even the previous one if you haven't played it, it has an inmense value and it's truly an incredible game, I hope it does well both in critics and in sales!

Also please forgive me for the sloppy look of the thread, the new forums don't allow much for customization or formatting so I had to go with a very basic look.

This has the potential for AAA from what I've seen. It's just been a while since I've played an action game like this and I still have to finish the first one. But once I do I'll definitely be getting this one soon after it.

Pre-ordered almost a year ago, can't wait for this shit!!!!!! Expecting 9/10 and the first quality title of 2014. They're pretty much taking all the good things from Darksiders 2 (huge world with great exploration), all the good things from GoW3 (visceral combat/nice graphics) and adding an amazing art style on top of all that. I don't even like or care about beat'em ups but this thing right here is hawt!

I think some people are underrating the game. It's gonna score pretty highly, I guessed a 9. It's more or less a Zelda-ish game now, but you are dracula. It's gonna be sweet. Already have the game paid off.

I think some people are underrating the game. It's gonna score pretty highly, I guessed a 9. It's more or less a Zelda-ish game now, but you are dracula. It's gonna be sweet. Already have the game paid off.

I think some people are underrating the game. It's gonna score pretty highly, I guessed a 9. It's more or less a Zelda-ish game now, but you are dracula. It's gonna be sweet. Already have the game paid off.

I think some people are underrating the game. It's gonna score pretty highly, I guessed a 9. It's more or less a Zelda-ish game now, but you are dracula. It's gonna be sweet. Already have the game paid off.

Well, GS was one of the few places that gave the game a score smaller than 8, so I think people from this site suppose it won't be that good when compared to the previous one.

I think some people are underrating the game. It's gonna score pretty highly, I guessed a 9. It's more or less a Zelda-ish game now, but you are dracula. It's gonna be sweet. Already have the game paid off.

Well, GS was one of the few places that gave the game a score smaller than 8, so I think people from this site suppose it won't be that good when compared to the previous one.

Its really too bad there is no PS4 edition of this game as it's one of the last big last gen games to release. I would gladly wait a few months for a spruced up edition in 1080p60.

This is a big concern to me because of sales.

Castlevania games were not selling a lot of units before LoS, Konami had almost killed the franchise, mercurysteam was given a minimal budget to make LoS, and it became the highest selling and highest grossing Castlevania in the franchise.

So Konami gave them more money for the sequel, and they really seem to be doing a great job.

But I'm afraid that it will become another Okami: A great game with low sales because it was only made for previous gen console in the beginning of a new gen.

Hope it sells really good, I mean I know the PC edition will sell a lot because of it being timeless, but I do hope that people are still buying PS3 and 360 games...

it won't score anywhere near 7 i can guarantee that. every con LoS1 had is gone, now all you're getting is a huge world to explore with a 30h+ campaign and no more fixed crappy camera either.

Like I said I think it will be a game I'll enjoy a ton myself. My reasoning for a potential 7 is that GS has been pretty hipster lately (like that 6.0 Arkham review). I don't think LOS2 will be progressive exactly. It will be classic Hn'S, platforming, some puzzles, massive boss battles and so on (a style of game I personally love). Not like Gone Home, Papers Please, or other games that "elevates the storytelling of the medium" (or whatever is the thing to do).

it won't score anywhere near 7 i can guarantee that. every con LoS1 had is gone, now all you're getting is a huge world to explore with a 30h+ campaign and no more fixed crappy camera either.

Like I said I think it will be a game I'll enjoy a ton myself. My reasoning for a potential 7 is that GS has been pretty hipster lately (like that 6.0 Arkham review). I don't think LOS2 will be progressive exactly. It will be classic Hn'S, platforming, some puzzles, massive boss battles and so on (a style of game I personally love). Not like Gone Home, Papers Please, or other games that "elevates the storytelling of the medium" (or whatever is the thing to do).

You couldn't be more right.

Crap like gone home gets a 9.5 while great, actual games get 7.0, damn yougs.

it won't score anywhere near 7 i can guarantee that. every con LoS1 had is gone, now all you're getting is a huge world to explore with a 30h+ campaign and no more fixed crappy camera either.

Like I said I think it will be a game I'll enjoy a ton myself. My reasoning for a potential 7 is that GS has been pretty hipster lately (like that 6.0 Arkham review). I don't think LOS2 will be progressive exactly. It will be classic Hn'S, platforming, some puzzles, massive boss battles and so on (a style of game I personally love). Not like Gone Home, Papers Please, or other games that "elevates the storytelling of the medium" (or whatever is the thing to do).

You couldn't be more right.

Crap like gone home gets a 9.5 while great, actual games get 7.0, damn yougs.

Gone Home wasn't great, good or even decent. Gone Home was an atrocious title and no, im not one of those who doesn't care about stories and skip everything. For $20 that game was such a ripoff that next time i'll think twice before buying an indie title.

it won't score anywhere near 7 i can guarantee that. every con LoS1 had is gone, now all you're getting is a huge world to explore with a 30h+ campaign and no more fixed crappy camera either.

Like I said I think it will be a game I'll enjoy a ton myself. My reasoning for a potential 7 is that GS has been pretty hipster lately (like that 6.0 Arkham review). I don't think LOS2 will be progressive exactly. It will be classic Hn'S, platforming, some puzzles, massive boss battles and so on (a style of game I personally love). Not like Gone Home, Papers Please, or other games that "elevates the storytelling of the medium" (or whatever is the thing to do).

You couldn't be more right.

Crap like gone home gets a 9.5 while great, actual games get 7.0, damn yougs.

Gone Home wasn't great, good or even decent. Gone Home was an atrocious title and no, im not one of those who doesn't care about stories and skip everything. For $20 that game was such a ripoff that next time i'll think twice before buying an indie title.

Gone home was a terribly overrated game, I actually made a thread about it at GS, I find it disgusting that it got so high ratings by critics simply because of the pro-homosexuality stance the game has, lord forbids the game with social commentary be given a score less than 9.

The baffling thing is that if you check the metacritic page, you'll see that it has like 6.2 in user reviews.

First game was bland as hell despite being incredibly pretty. It also never felt like a Castlevania game. Just God of War in Castlevania garb. Hopefully Gamespot recognizes that this time around. I'm quite glad this is MecurySteam's last entry in the franchise.

Thread is bad and you should feel bad. I'm not hyped at all. Hype threads are supposed to get people hyped. Nice to know the youtube function is back!

It's not my fault if you don't like the franchise.

@foxhound_fox said:

6

First game was bland as hell despite being incredibly pretty. It also never felt like a Castlevania game. Just God of War in Castlevania garb. Hopefully Gamespot recognizes that this time around. I'm quite glad this is MecurySteam's last entry in the franchise.

How do you know its MS last entry? they could make more as far as we know. not LoS since its supposed to finish with this one, but maybe another reboot or spin off.

Sounds like it has potential, but I saw in a thread on another forum that Gameinformer gave it a 6, saying that any deviation from the combat falls straight flat on its face. First game was solid, so that's disappointing to hear.

First game was bland as hell despite being incredibly pretty. It also never felt like a Castlevania game. Just God of War in Castlevania garb. Hopefully Gamespot recognizes that this time around. I'm quite glad this is MecurySteam's last entry in the franchise.

Castlevania Lords of Shadow is so much better than GOW3 or Ascension. The narrative, gameplay, soundtrack, length and variety of CLoS are simply better than that found in the God of War games.

As far as the similarities between CLoS and GOW, well God of War didn't invent those things in the first place.

In any case, CLoS is very much like an updated Castlevania Lament of Innocence and that game came out like 2 years before God of War.

Apparently you're not an actual Castlevania fan if you like Lords of Shadow...

So fucking retarded.

Well it does offer an alternate version of existing Castlevania lore, yet uses existing characters (Alucard)... I haven't played LoS 1 and the only Castlevania games I've played were the NES ones and SOTN, so I do think the parallel canon is unnecessary.